Denmark

The Danes must be pretty uptight, but I do see his point.

“A right-wing Danish politician has mocked a Maori welcome to New Zealand, dubbing the powhiri an “uncivilised” ritual, and marae a “grotesque” mark of multicultural worship.

Marie Krarup, in an opinion piece in Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende, was shocked to be welcomed by a dancing, barely-clothed man, instead of a handshake or salute.

“When we came to a naval base, we were not received with a handshake or salute by uniformed men as usual,” she wrote.

“No, we were welcomed with a Maori dance ritual, with a half-naked man in grass skirt, shouting and screaming in Maori.”  Read more »

Good piece on the Nordic countries in the Economist – highlights how their economic model is working but interesting reasons why:

• Sweden has reduced public spending from 67% to 49% of GDP from 1993 to today
• Top marginal tax rate has been cut by 27% from 1983 and continuing to fall.
• Scrapped taxes such as property, gift, wealth and inheritance taxes
• Corporate tax rate cut to 22%

Before this Sweden had been demoted from 4^th richest in the world in the 70’s to 14^th in 1993.  Read more »

Back in 2011 I blogged about the new fat tax in Denmark and said at the time it wouldn’t work.

Unfortunately the Danes experiment won’t work because they are taxing the wrong things. Instead of taxing foods with fat in them they need to be taxing things with carbohydrates in them, that is a much broader tax base to start with and secondly will actually address the issue.

You would think that after 50 years of telling people to eat less fat to get thinner we would have a whole heap of thin people, instead we have the exact opposite with the high focus on carbohydrate rich foods. The obesity epidemic is being caused by the health professionals forcing us to carb load.

I was right…it didn’t work and is now it is being repealed…though that won’t stop Labour and the Greens adopting similar stupid policies:

Citing a harmful effect on businesses and consumer buying power, lawmakers in Denmark have repealed the so-called fat tax, which was charged on foods high in saturated fats, after just one year.

In a related decision, the Danish tax ministry said it was canceling plans for a sugar tax. “The fat tax is one of the most criticized we had in a long time,” Mette Gjerskov, minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, said on Saturday during a news conference in Copenhagen, the day the repeal was announced.

“Now we have to try to improve public health by other means.”

Fat bastards just need to stop stuffing food in their gobs.

In Denmark they are trying to make catching the bus cool. It is a cool ad but riding the bus still sucks, and is only marginally better than trains. All those people int eh ad must be actors because the only people who usually take buses are smelly hippys and the indigent, certainly not hot chicks.

Riding the bus might not qualify as the most glamourous form of transportation. But do they really deserve a reputation that ranks slightly below cars and slightly above motorized scooters?

After watching a brilliant ad spot out of Denmark from ad agency M2Film, you might just put the brakes on that thought.

Handy tip: Turn on the Closed Captioning by pushing the CC button at the bottom of the video for subtitles.

ᔥ Mashable

To recognize 80 years of toy creation, Lego has released this 17-minute story of the company’s history. This short film, which can be found on YouTube, is sure to invoke feelings of nostalgia in every adult who loved the plastic brick toy as a kid.

The animated video describes the life of Danish toymaker Ole Kirk Christiansen, who created the company in 1932, and his son Godtfred, Lego’s second owner, from the perspective of current owner Kjeld, the founder’s grandson.

via Andrew Sullivan:

A very interesting commentary about small businesses and failing economies. Given that the overwhelming number of New Zealand businesses are small, surely we should be mindful of what other economies show us.

The developed countries with the highest percentage of workers employed by small businesses include Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Italy—that is, the four countries whose economic woes are wreaking such havoc on financial markets. Meanwhile, the countries with the lowest percentage of workers employed by small businesses are Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the U.S.—some of the strongest economies in the world.

This correlation is not a coincidence. It reflects a simple reality: small businesses are, on the whole, less productive than big businesses, and though they do create most jobs, they also destroy most jobs, since, while starting a business is easy, keeping it going is hard. This is true around the world.

Denmark is getting one. And for good reason. If someone is fat they cost all tax payers a lot of extra money because they eat too much food and don’t exercise enough.

Denmark is to impose the world’s first “fat tax” in a drive to slim its population and cut heart disease.

The move may increase pressure for a similar tax in the UK, which suffers from the highest levels of obesity in Europe.

Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax.

The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn Danish Krone (£140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10pc, and butter consumption by 15pc.

“It’s the first ever fat-tax,” said Mike Rayner, Director of Oxford University’s Health Promotion Research Group, who has long campaigned for taxes on unhealthy foods.

Problems with obesity are going to cost the New Zealand taxpayer billions, and it is time we had an honest debate about making fat bastards pay for their lifestyle choices.

Lets broaden the tax base by taxing fat bastard food and not using quite so much income tax to fund keeping fat bastards alive. Unfortunately the Danes experiment won’t work because they are taxing the wrong things. Instead of taxing foods with fat in them they need to be taxing things with carbohydrates in them, that is a much broader tax base to start with and secondly will actually address the issue.

You would think that after 50 years of telling people to eat less fat to get thinner we would have a whole heap of thin people, instead we have the exact opposite with the high focus on carbohydrate rich foods. The obesity epidemic is being caused by the health professionals forcing us to carb load.

hat tip Boing Boing

The EDAR (Everyone Deserves a Roof) is like a miniature pop-up camper designed as a portable shelter for homeless people. Hollywood movie producer Peter Samuelson (Revenge of the Nerds) came up with the idea and sponsored a prototype contest at the Art Center College of Design. Eric Lindeman and Jason Zasa won with a shopping cart-inspired version. Now, the non-profit EDAR Foundation is starting to distribute the shelters in the Los Angeles area and looking for donations to manufacture more of them.

Perhaps Auckland City could help out with the donations and get whole stack of them in the process, then the lefty twats who don’t care about the homeless and the conservatives who do but don’t want to see them can all get a win on the board.